With All My Might

"Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might"- 2 Samuel 6:14 (NIV).

I love worshiping through music: both traditional and contemporary. My church does a great job of having both. Our praise team sang "Oceans" Sunday morning. Then the choir did an old time gospel that had some of us swaying side-to-side on our feet (no church-wide clapping though). We don't raise our hands or shout out "Amens" (well, maybe sporadically), but we do sing joyfully. Our limp hands are not due to the choice of music. The point of my devotional thought is that I think God loves to see His church worship Him with abandon, regardless of what culture accepts as worship. It's very freeing to let go of any fear of judgment while worshiping. I experienced that type of worship at a Beth Moore Bible study in Charlotte, North Carolina. We all traveled, by public bus, to her meeting, with Bibles in hand. During her study, we found ourselves on our feet with our hands lifted high above our heads, singing and praying. It was one of the most beautiful worship moments of my life; very liberating. That must have been how David felt. He didn't care what others thought of him; he loved the Lord and danced before Him with all his might. Don't think that David's culture was any different about being as judgmental as modern culture. His wife despised his behavior afterwards (v.16). I loved his retort: "I will celebrate in the Lord's presence, and I will degrade myself even more than this" (v. 21b-22a). David was a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). What kind of church would we be, what impact would we have, if we worshiped Jesus with all our might?